The deal probably will close in the second half of this
year, said Kley in a speech. The acquisition is the biggest for
the family-controlled maker of drugs and chemicals since the
$13.7 billion purchase of Serono SA in 2007.

Merck, based in Darmstadt, Germany, is paying $107 a share
for Millipore, 50 percent more than the closing price on Feb.
19, the last day of trading before Bloomberg News reported that
the U.S. company had received a takeover offer from Thermo
Fisher Scientific Inc. Merck’s winning bid, announced Feb. 28,
will give it a more profitable business after setbacks with the
Erbitux cancer drug and the cladribine multiple sclerosis pill.

“In the days after the Feb. 28 announcement of the
acquisition, I was asked a couple of times whether the price was
too high,” said Kley. “I have a clear answer: No, Millipore is
worth every euro.”

The takeover will transform Merck’s performance and life
science chemicals division, in which sales fell 4 percent last
year to 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion), said Kley.

“This acquisition means more than just rounding off the
business,” he said. “It is about transforming the division.”

Rejected

The company aims to resubmit its cladribine application to
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “as quickly as
possible,” Kley said. The agency rejected the application in
November. Merck expects EU authorities to rule on cladribine by
the third quarter and is confident the drug will be approved in
Europe, Elmar Schnee, head of the company’s drugs unit, said at
the meeting.

Merck is cooperating with authorities to investigate why a
patient taking its experimental cancer vaccine Stimuvax
developed a brain infection, said Kley.

The stock gained 72 cents, or 1.2 percent, to close at
61.57 euros in Frankfurt. Merck has fallen 4.5 percent since the
company said on Feb. 23 it would reduce the dividend for 2009 by
one-third. Merck is the only one of Europe’s 10 biggest
drugmakers to lower the annual shareholder payout in the past
year, according to Bloomberg data.

The dividend reduction is justified because economic
recession, delayed payments in Greece and currency devaluation
in Venezuela led to lower pretax profits last year, Kley said.

This year “will not be an easy year either,” the
executive said.

Merck still expects its operating result to rise 20 percent
to 30 percent this year on a sales increase of 3 percent to 7
percent, said Kley.